By Michael Copley, Staff Writer
mcopley@powhatantoday.com

A man charged with distribution of cocaine and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute will serve nine months in prison.

Defense attorney Terry Driskill pointed out his client’s “good record,” and Kelly Jackson told the court he got in trouble after “hanging around with the wrong guys.”

But Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Richard Cox asked the court for an active incarceration.

“It’s one thing to try [crack cocaine] and another thing to spread the misery.”

The Sheriff’s Office used an informant to buy cocaine from Jackson November 10, 2007 and he was arrested later that day when police executed a search warrant at residence on Maidens Road.

There they found drugs and drug paraphernalia, and Jackson admitted the cocaine they found was his. Last week he told the court that he started selling cocaine to support his own drug habit.

The case was scheduled for a March 13, 2009 jury trial, but at the last minute Jackson changed his plea to guilty and the case proceeded in a bench trial.

On Thursday, Judge Warren sentenced Kelly Jackson to the mandatory minimum under sentencing guidelines- five years on each charge, with four years and three months suspended, all time to run concurrent.